The components (e.g., processors, micro-controllers, high speed video cards, disk drives, semi-conductor devices, etc.) of an electronic system are generally known to generate significant amounts of heat. It has been found that the performance and reliability of the heat generating components typically deteriorate as the components become increasingly heated and may cause component failure. Electronic systems are thus generally equipped with a mechanism (e.g., a fan) attached to the housing of the electronic system to cool the components as well as the interior of the electronic system. Although these types of mechanisms have been relatively effective in cooling the components of certain types of electronic systems, they have been found to be relatively insufficient to cool the faster and more powerful components of today's electronics.
With the advent of more powerful components which generate greater amounts of heat, the possibility that the components will overheat has drastically increased. One solution to the overheating problem has been to directly cool the components themselves. In this regard, refrigeration systems have been implemented to directly cool the components. In these types of systems, an evaporator is positioned in thermal contact with a surface of the component to be cooled. These types of systems have been relatively effective in maintaining the temperatures of individual computer components within acceptable ranges. However, when an electronic system possesses a number of components (“multi-component system”), known refrigeration systems suffer from a variety of drawbacks and disadvantages.
For instance, one known technique of reducing the temperature of components in a multi-component system is to rely upon a single refrigeration system possessing a plurality of evaporators aligned in series along each of the components. One disadvantage associated with known serially positioned evaporators is that they generally do not compensate for varying heat loads in the components to substantially reduce the temperature variation among the components. That is, these types of systems do not compensate for the possibility that evaporators positioned downstream from other evaporators may be adversely affected (e.g., downstream evaporators may receive superheated fluid which may actually cause a rise in their temperature). In addition, they do not compensate for the possibility of evaporators positioned relatively upstream and producing a relatively low heat load, may actually be cooled below recommended operating temperatures.